Retail chain ‘Target’ reacted swiftly to its enormous data breach, but the chain is far from the only company scrambling to mitigate damage from the online assault, retail and security experts say.

‘Target’ reported in December 2013 that criminals had gained access to 40 million shoppers’ credit- and debit-card information on November 27 — the day before Thanksgiving and just ahead of one of the busiest shopping days of the year — and maintained access through December 15.

Similarly, Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus also reported that hackers stole credit- and debit-card information from as many as one million customers and made unauthorised charges over the holiday season. The security breaches have left those retailers with a huge and costly problem as they work to remedy things for affected customers.

Shoppers are now wary about shopping in these retail chains and want all bankers and retailers to put in place foolproof swiping of debit/credit cards.